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Today’s movement conservatives promise to be yet more radical. Here it is useful to turn to the history lessons that Beck provides on his TV show.

According to Beck, the reforms of the early 1900s introduced “the cancer that is destroying America.” Beck the firebrand has “declared war on progressivism.”

What would it mean to repeal the Progressive Era? Freeing coal-mine operators of safety inspections? Putting children back to work in the mines? Letting drug companies sell mercury-laced potions?

But some Progressive Era reforms are clearly in the tea parties’ sights. They now seek to scrap the century-old system of federal oversight of natural-resource extraction. The regulatory hole that opened the oil gusher in the Gulf has not cooled their enthusiasm to “drill, baby, drill!”

Tea parties demand repeal of the 16th Amendment of 1913, which allows for the federal income tax. Farm and labor reformers proposed a progressive income tax as a means to narrow the chasm between the superrich and everyone else. Over much of the 20th century, that’s what the tax did.

But the regressive tax measures of the past 30 years have led to poles of poverty and wealth unseen since the Progressive Era. The tea parties don’t want half-measures, though. They seek to bury the progressive idea that there is something wrong when Warren Buffett pays a lower tax rate than his secretary.

Perhaps the mixed message of today’s tea parties is best understood by their demand to “End the Fed!” Repealing the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 and returning to gold-backed currency are fetishes of the John Birch Society.

And it has returned in full flower. Beck hawks gold on TV, while Republican state conventions write “End the Fed!” planks into their platforms.

In the late 19th century, upholding the gold standard was the litmus test for conservatives — a fine policy for bankers and investors but torture for farmers with mortgages.

So today’s demand to “End the Fed!” marks a radical departure from nearly a century of precedent. It would risk sending the economy into a deflationary death spiral and blowing up the global financial system.

The old principles have been turned inside out. Notions of respect for precedent and prudent governance have been replaced by the political equivalent of dynamite.

Such is today’s “true conservatism.”

Charles Postel, an assistant professor of history at San Francisco State University, won the Bancroft Prize in American history for his book “The Populist Vision.”

This author author does a very poor job of hiding his bias and agenda.

The fact that the Tea Party supporters actually consider what the Constitution says and contrast it to what we see politicians attempting to do today makes it a a very healthy movement for America - and a clear threat to the statist control freaks and bureaucrats that permeate our bloated institutions .

Delegitimizing conservatives is the first responsibility of every progressive. Conservatives are not just wrong, they are morally evil. Conservatives are so lacking in substance that all it takes to expose their selfish machinations is a strawman argument. No one is fooled.

When I first read your headline I figured this was an article about the likes of Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. Both big government hacks. As I began reading, my thoughts changed to "What does Politico think conservatism is?" All the social programs you list are a failure and you wonder why people are fed up?

At times I think revolution is the only answer. Politicians and Crony Capitalists have a very strong hold on the country. I can only hope this November brings a stop to this madness. I also hope 2012 is another turning point for the better. Power to the people.

You'll have to forgive me for NOT accepting your conclusion about Ending the Fed. I am not prone to blindly follow an unsupported assertion that a responsible hard money policy would by definition put this country into a deflationary death spiral.

There is little doubt that as a history professor, you are alluding to the economic impacts of the rescinding of the charter for the 2nd Bank of the United States. However, an honest assessment of the subsequent economic "panic" and recession was in large part influenced by the hissy fit of Nicholas Biddle.

The "too big to fail" bankers of today would be likely to exact the same kind of temper tantrum on the American economy, but if that could be avoided, a hard money economy along with a removal of the moral hazard that government subsidies place on our economy, would do more to lift our nation than to depress it.

Converting to hard money, however, would require a generation, as old preconceptions will have to give way to new ones.

He's supposed to show it - it's an opinion article, and is labeled as such.

A huge portion of this is that higher education is expensive and microphones are cheap. Freedom of speech trumps all, of course, but the Tea Party movement demonstrates what happens when uneducated or undereducated voices are able to be louder than all the others. This isn't to say all Tea Partiers are uneducated, but I've spoken to several and I have yet to find those who are able to tell me why they are called 'Tea Partiers' or why they herald back to the Revolutionary War, other than it is 'American' symbolism and they are 'Americans'. A few quotes from Thomas Jefferson, and that seems to be the extent of their knoweldge. There has not been one Tea Partier to impress me.

The Republicans have a history of adopting large movements to increase their voter turnout (read: Evangelicals) and I think adopting the Tea Party in such a manner is a mistake because it does fly in the face of Republicanism. That is to say that Tea Partiers say they are under an oppresive regime and tyranny is ruling in Washington - we have a Democracy. We have elected our officials. Just because your officials didn't win doesn't mean you are under the reign of tyranny. I think it might be offensive to people who have survived through Soviet Russia or real dictatorships to hear Americans say that they are oppressed. Americans are hardly oppressed - go talk to some Iranians if you are American and feel oppressed, and perhaps you will learn the truth about oppression, tyranny and dictatorship.

People seem to think that the tea party stands for just conservative thinking. Taxed Enough Already, are they saying that only conservatives are taxed enough already, but the rest of Americans do not feel their taxed enough already. If you feel your not taxed enough already, you can pay my taxes.

Our taxes go to other countries as they laugh in our face as they take our money. We pay for abortions in foreign countries and here at home, we take care of illegal aliens that do not by our federal immigration laws belong here, if we were not trying to spread the wealth all over the world Our taxes would drop like flies eating raid at a picnic.

As a business owner I have not only, let go of employees, I'm not hiring either. I have given my employees fair warning 2011, I drop their health insurance, I told them you now have obamacare. I told them obama is hiring federal workers with plenty of bennies.

I have not found one part of the radical socialist Democrats party agenda I agree with. Seems about 61 % of Americans feel the same way I do. With 39 % of the radical socialist democrats side with higher taxes and to spread the wealth so they can live off other peoples money. The spending spree in the last 40 years with American taxes must be stopped dead in it's tracks or the price will be one we can not pay.

As an American I believe we should always give our follow citizens a hand up, not a hand out. You give a person a meal, they will be hungry in a few hours, but teach them how to earn it and they can feed themselves. People that can work but refuse to, are a burden on the American people, people that avoid paying their taxes are a burden on the American people. I'm welling to place a bet in L.V. that there are more Americans that believe they are Taxed Enough Already, than there are Americans that feel they are not Taxed Enough Already. This American has no doubt that I'm Taxed Enough Already!

If the oligarchies are willing to go quietly and quickly, there will be no revolution. They need to take their pawns and the Federal Reserve with them. Go back to Great Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, Israel, China or wherever your allegiance lies.

We cannot go backward! These people think to simplistically and are completely unaware of "the big picture" and of the fact that this is no longer the America of the 1930's, or for that matter, the 1950's and why is that? Well, in many ways it is because of Conservative governing that we are losing the middleclass in America - they have shipped our jobs overeas and have determined that we will now be a "service" based economy - which would be okay IF only that would support our nation but it will not. We need to go back to being a manufacturer based economy which supports the middleclass in this country with jobs and money to spend.

We need to go back to being a manufacturer based economy which supports the middleclass in this country with jobs and money to spend.

Glad to see you have finally come around to the need for the manufacturing. Just remember that BOTH parties and the LEADERSHIP of BOTH parties have been the ones to ship the manufacturing outside our borders.

Free Trade is the mantra of both parties. Environmentalists do not like manufacturing plants. The EPA is now going after FARMERS because they "kick up dust" while they plant seeds in the dirt. Taxes loopholes were written to give manufacturing companies to move to other nations. Taxes were increased for goods manufactured within the US and shipped outside the US.

Neither parties' leadership has been friendly to manufacturing for decades. It's time to fire all of them.

People seem to think that the tea party stands for just conservative thinking. Taxed Enough Already, are they saying that only conservatives are taxed enough already, but the rest of Americans do not feel their taxed enough already. If you feel your not taxed enough already, you can pay my taxes.

Here's the thing - our country is in deep financial trouble, we are still in 2 wars - I don't want to pay higher taxes but if it will help to lower (pay) our debt then we should all be willing to pay a bit more - it's what a family does when they deal with economic problems and we as Americans are family and therefore must be willing to make a certain amount of sacrafices. This also means that the government must make sacrafices in their spending - well, how do they do that without hurting those who are struggling during these difficult economic times? There in lies a big portion of the problem. You don't kick someone when they are down so that leaves us sacraficing somewhere else - military spending perhaps? A huge chunk of our budget. Allow the Bush tax cuts to expire (as planned) but continue those cuts for those making under $250K - seems like a good way to bring in additional revenue.

Again, I don't mind the higher tax even for someone like me making around 30K/yr - I would NOT see a signifiant change in my lifestyle just as those top 2% will not. Conservatives get angry when they should be thinking - "how can we help?" but they don't want to help they only want what they want and quite honestly, I don't know what that is. They seem to live in another universe than the one I'm living in.

As an American I believe we should alwasy give our follow citizens a hand up, not ahand out. You give a person a meal, they will be hungry in a few hours, but teach them how to earn it and they can feed thesmelves. People that can work but refuse to , are a burden on the American people, people that avoid paying their taxes are a burden on the American people. I'm welling to place a bet in L.V. that there are more than enough Americans that believe they are Taxed Enough Already, than there are Americans that feel they are not Taxed Enough Already. This American has no doubt that I'm Taxed Enough Already!

Unfortunatly, fiscal responsibility was something we were going to have to deal with before Obama's increase in spending. When Bush left office, no matter who won to come in after him, we would be in huge deficits. The Tea Partiers say they are for fiscal responsibility and balancing the budget - while the Democrats haven't said they are going to increase taxes, letting the Bush tax cuts expire could help in balancing the budget. How are we supposed to balance the budget, with or without Obama's spending, if we don't take steps to do just that?

And I ask you also, quite respectfully as I understand your views, we are to teach a person to earn a meal when education costs are through the roof. I come from an undereducated family. I went to college all on my own, burdened with private loans from banks. They don't care about me - I'm a dollar symbol, a bottom line to them. However, I will be able to pay them back as I work my way up in the world - that education has given me a step I'd have never had before. So who is helping me to earn my meal? Well if it hadn't been for Government Stafford Loans I wouldn't have made it to college at all - those banks would never have given me enough to go to school. I would be paying the bare minimum in taxes. And I don't say that to imply that people should haul themselves up by their boot straps like I did. I did it - but it was hard. I had more than my fair share of screaming, crying, and pure terror that I wouldn't make it. But there are young people like me all over the world who aren't being taught to earn their meal - who can't get private loans. No one is helping them. Will you take it upon yourself to help them all? Or can we ask our government to do that, to take a little from everyone to help those like me who want, more than anything, to earn their own way?

I will admit that there are people who ride the system. They are predators - they see a lazy way through and they take it. But if those sorts of people didn't ride on the coat-tails of tax payers, they would find another way to prey on those around them. And I would rather help support 10 people like that then to let one girl like me who could grow into a tax-paying, proud, worthy memeber of society slip through the cracks.

I'm not saying raise taxes, but I'm saying we have to understand what our taxes really do. And, if you don't like the idea of expiring the Bush tax cuts, how would you suggest that we work toward a balanced budget while making sure a little girl like me, somewhere, learns to make her own meal?

You'll have to forgive me for NOT accepting your conclusion about Ending the Fed. I am not prone to blindly follow an unsupported assertion that a responsible hard money policy would by definition put this country into a deflationary death spiral.

There is little doubt that as a history professor, you are alluding to the economic impacts of the rescinding of the charter for the 2nd Bank of the United States. However, an honest assessment of the subsequent economic "panic" and recession was in large part influenced by the hissy fit of Nicholas Biddle.

The "too big to fail" bankers of today would be likely to exact the same kind of temper tantrum on the American economy, but if that could be avoided, a hard money economy along with a removal of the moral hazard that government subsidies place on our economy, would do more to lift our nation than to depress it.

Converting to hard money, however, would require a generation, as old preconceptions will have to give way to new ones.

The only thing I agree with these crazy conservatives about is putting us back on the gold standard. The Federal Reserve controls the government and the economy. Other than that they are nutty, racist hypocrits.

Glad to see you have finally come around to the need for the manufacturing. Just remember that BOTH parties and the LEADERSHIP of BOTH parties have been the ones to ship the manufacturing outside our borders.

Free Trade is the mantra of both parties. Environmentalists do not like manufacturing plants. The EPA is now going after FARMERS because they "kick up dust" while they plant seeds in the dirt. Taxes loopholes were written to give manufacturing companies to move to other nations. Taxes were increased for goods manufactured within the US and shipped outside the US.

Neither parties' leadership has been friendly to manufacturing for decades. It's time to fire all of them.

Finally?!!! I've been saying it for years! Democrats believe this.

Yes, I think we do need to reconsider the options but I have always believed that part of the issue was RR's breaking of Unions and that Republican policy is more responsible for the off shore problems we have. I also believe that American companies need to show some patriotism for their country instead of everything being about the bottom line ($$$$). There is so much more to business even if that is difficult to determine in todays atmosphere. Part of the reason for manufacturing anything was at one time the workers it supported with jobs so that they would spend money. Manufacturers felt a responsibility to create these jobs - and they didn't expect the high profits expected today. Making a profit is necessary to the manufacturer but greed has set in and today, the profit is NEVER enough so they continue to search for cheaper and cheaper labor. It always comes down to the labor and not the taxes imposed on manufacturing. And of course, it is good paying jobs that has allowed our economy to flurish for so many years - you must allow the middleclass in this country to make a decent wage or our economy can not be sustained.

But the question is this - what will they do when Americans can no longer support their manufacturing - when they are no longer able to buy their products because the jobs they have been left with pay such low wages if you are lucky enough to even have one? It will eventually come down to this because we will have lost our middleclass - the spenders.

The EPA is now going after FARMERS because they "kick up dust" while they plant seeds in the dirt.

Because that dust gets into rivers and those rivers empty out into the gulf of mexico. That "dust" contains high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus which (blah blah blah + complicated science stuff) is bad for ocean life.

You may now return to your regularly scheduled silly rant about nonsense.

"Freedom of speech trumps all, of course, but the Tea Party movement demonstrates what happens when uneducated or undereducated voices are able to be louder than all the others. This isn't to say all Tea Partiers are uneducated, but......"

I am sure you are one of the "boycott Arizona" supporters decrying racial profiling but you profile the Tea Party as uneducated.

"The Republicans have a history of adopting large movements...."

What party would not adopt is paralel principals? Tea Party = Conservatism. Republicans have gotten away from their basic principals. Government does not have all the answers